By Bill Emes
Gary Shaw, the promoter for light heavyweight contender Chad Dawson (30-1, 17KOs), believes WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32KOs) has a realistic fear of his boxer. Shaw first noticed some changes in Hopkins behavior last October, as both boxers weighed in for their first meeting.
"Let's go back for a moment to the weigh-in in California, when they went face to face. Usually Hopkins is talking sh*t to the fighter's face. He couldn't look at Chad and he walked away from Chad. He spent one second taking pictures and he never said a word, he turned and he walked away," Shaw said.
The following night, their match last two rounds. Hopkins claims to have suffered a shoulder injury in the second round, when Dawson used his shoulder to push him off, and Hopkins fell to the mat. Both Dawson and Shaw, to this day, dispute Hopkins' injury claim.
"I still don't believe he was hurt. He found a way, as he always does, to get out of the fight. If you look at Chad, after Hopkins was on the ground, Chad was running around like an uncaged animal and telling Hopkins to get up and fight like a man and he never did. There is no proof that he was hurt until this day, other than him saying that he couldn't lift his shoulder up. there is nothing about a rehab," Shaw said.
The promoter also states that Hopkins refused to take part in a final press conference with Dawson, and he turned down the opportunity to tape an episode of HBO's 'Face Off with Max Kellerman' - where Hopkins and Dawson would have spoken to each other face to face.
"Don't you all find it strange that we are all here doing a roundtable instead of a press conference, because Hopkins won't look him in the eye. We had the opportunity with HBO to do what's called the 'Face-Off with Max Kellerman' - and he didn't want to do it. Hopkins didn't want to do it. Chad was available," Shaw said.
The end result, Shaw expects Hopkins to take get punished until he quits in one of the rounds.
"I want to make a prediction. Chad is beating him bad, the fight will never go twelve rounds. Hopkins will not come out of the corner in one of those rounds. He will have some type of injury because he is not going to want [to suffer a] defeat to Chad Dawson in the ring," Shaw said.
